So... How Can I Get a Job?

The best thing you can do in order to get a job as a web developer is, of course, to know your stuff! But, when compared to other careers, web development does have some wrinkles (that probably work in your favor). Because the industry has a long history of successful developers with varying backgrounds, people tend to care more about what you've actually built than how you got there (e.g. which school you went to).

So build! Build and build and build and keep on building. Build projects that try out new technologies and put up websites for you and your friends. Hack on open source projects once you feel comfortable tackling some of their bug reports. The Odin Project is a perfect project to hack on (we've put a lot of effort into making it easy to contribute)!) Not only do you get better at developing by practicing it, not only is it fun, but it will also help you decide which parts of web development you really find the most interesting. You may surprise yourself.

This curriculum will give you plenty of opportunity to build but it's up to you to stick with it and to keep that creative spark going once you're done. Luckily, most people seem to have the opposite problem -- building stuff can get pretty addictive and you may find yourself taking on too many side projects to handle at one time. That's a fun phase.

Once you've honed your skills and found the right job posting, you'll be invited for one or more interviews. Developer interviews are typically a combination of testing your ability to think technically (with thought questions, brain teasers, coding exercises) and an examination of the work you've done previously. They are usually looking for people with a demonstrated ability to pick things up quickly, complete projects, and work well with others.

Take a look at this comprehensive blog post from Happy Bear Software on the journey to getting hired. You don't need to get too caught up in the details just yet -- use it as an introduction to what you'll be doing after you've got your "sea legs" and motivation to pay attention along the way.

Additional Resources

This section contains helpful links to other content. It isn't required, so consider it supplemental for if you need to dive deeper into something

Salary Information, though take it with a grain of salt because it's highly dependent on location and skills/seniority. Developers in tech hubs like San Francisco earn significantly more than average but, of course, their costs of living are higher as well.